Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to harp on about it but ash dieback has been mentioned by every contributor here this evening and by the IFA well. I raised one point with the new president of the IFA on the issue of forestry implantation in general. If the Department did not hear his reply, I would ask Mr. Delany and his officials to listen to his reply. It was alarming for the first-time president to speak about the confidence of farmers being totally deflated in respect of the planting. As a rural TD in Wexford I get this raised definitely once a week if not daily depending on what meetings I am at. I worked in the forestry industry before I came in here. I have genuinely never seen the confidence so low in getting farmers to plant and in encouraging them to plant. They may have had the idea or the notion of planting previously but what has happened in the last 12 to 18 months with the new forestry programme still has to be proven. The Department says it is a fantastic programme but the proof is in the pudding as they say. I ask the officials to just listen back to the IFA contribution. I would like a reply but I do not want to put Mr. Delany on the spot.